Life Blasters was born in Yosemite National Park, 1/3 of way between San Francisco and Las Vegas on a road trip to Formula DRIFT. It’s drifting season again, and that means road trip season. Here’s the first one.
Pitts: We set out from Lab17 in Drew’s trusty Camry only to find dead stopped traffic on 580 due to a pretty awesome looking accident (pictured below). Little did we know the long road ahead was littered with accidents, weather, and other excitement.
Bohan: yeah, it was pretty sunny when we left, but after an hour on the 5 it got dark like somebody turned off the lights. I thought there was a bunch of dust on the side of the road, then Geoff realized it was all hail. He yelled “DUDE BE CAREFUL!” right as we saw a benz half way over the embankment on the right side, and an overturned SUV on the left side.
Pitts: I was randomly snapping at this rainbow when Drew announced “Holy *$%# dude! It ends RIGHT on our hood! that’s gotta be lucky…” I agree. The pot of gold is either us, or the V6 in Drew’s Camry.
Pitts: This is Chad Keith, drummer for the raucous metal band Jameson. Chad and I actually grew up in the west bay and started our first band with the help of a fellow named Russ, and Chad’s brother Nick. I think our relative ages were 11-13 and the band name was KILLER. “Pollo Diablo”.
Bohan: The guys in Jameson were super cool and invited LifeBlasters to sit in on their practice session in North Hollywood on our way to Long Beach. I was excited to finally meet these guys since I used a lot of their music in my early drifting videos, and Geoff talks about Chad all the time. As you can see, the practice spot is HELLA small! I’d guess this room to be about 8’x15′, so there was barely room for the band even without Geoff and me getting in their way!
Pitts: The room was super small indeed, but wouldn’t you know? Drew STILL had a go with the 300. You can have it when you pry it from his cold dead hands.
Pitts: Listening to such heavy music in such a tiny space is pretty amazing. I think it’s sound waves alone that’s causing Drew’s camera shake here. So much power!
Pitts: Jameson has been practicing in this spot for a while now, and it shows. Scattered everywhere around Chad’s drums are the remnants of hundreds, maybe thousands of drumsticks.
Keith(drums): Yeah dude, drum stick shards can be f*cking dangerous! One time I got about a 2″ piece of shredded drum stick in my eye during a show!
Ranada(shredstick1): I remember that sh*t! it was just like, sticking out of your eye!
Bohan: That’s pretty metal!
Pitts: Yeah, if that isn’t heavy metal, I don’t know what is!
Pitts: Jameson practices several times a week to stay sharp for their constant gigging in the LA area and beyond. The way Chad described it to me sounded more like a strict exercise regime than band practice. It just goes to show that even when you do what you love, it’s still hard work.
Bohan: Jay the bass player had a broken hand. He looked pretty bummed since he couldn’t rock out with the rest of the band. He never did tell us how he broke his hand…
Bohan: I haven’t shot a lot of band stuff, but my style is influenced by Charles Peterson, a famous band photographer from the 90’s. Using B/W and high contrast for band photos has always been my favorite because of the rawness and feeling added by the lack of color.
Pitts: Onward to LBC! Check out Jameson’s tour! They’re probably coming to YOUR town!
-G
-D
|